fredag 6. juli 2012

The newspapers write about it on the front page-people talking about it and you could get a little annoyed by the brown slimy kind that crawls around in the garden and eat your vegetables and herbs. Brown snail or "killer slug" as the colorful press like to call it, is visibly present now as it has been mild and very wet.

What is almost worse than having it around is to collect them, pour salt on it and expose the snail and yourself for the horrors of this human activity. What turns out to be both a relaxed way to combat them, feel that you are doing a good deed, both to the neighborhood, your own plants and the snail itself is to make a Beertrap!

There has been done research in the U.S. showing that the snail like dark beer! They like the smell and taste. As professor Christoffer Schander at the UiB says "- It worked just fine. But I do not think light beer or alcohol-free product has the same effect as regular beer. After removing the alcohol disappears some of the strong, distinctive smell."

What is better than giving them some good beer from Nøgne Ø? A rich, dark beer, such as Imperial Stout will probably satisfy the most discerning snail! A beertrap is supposed to be buried to ground level-but that's probably way on how much effort you should do? Do snail want beer so get it do its own work! Use a plastic ice box- pour a bottle of beer into it and let the show begin!

After one day with some good Imp. Stout in an ice box trap it has begun to be known in the snail circuits! I am sorry to say a number of minor snails have strayed into it- they probably did not read the warning printed on the outside. This evening they have started to get big! They love it! While the snail makes the job of exterminate itself, you can relax and enjoy a good beer in the sunset on your terrace- free of snails!